Hear'Say's silent fortune

They were already famous before their first single was released and went straight to Number One on Sunday.

Now Hear'Say, the group created by the hit ITV series Popstars, look set to make their fortunes - from advertising deals.

Everyone from car manufacturers to mobile phone networks has tried to sign them up to promote their products.

Clothes retailer River Island has even paid £100,000 for a single photocall.

Yesterday the five members of the group posed with scooters made by Piaggio, which signed them before their chart success with their single Pure And Simple.

It paid the bargain basement price of £10,000, plus five £1,749 scooters and driving lessons.

The Piaggio people looked on smugly as the new stars obligingly climbed on to the bikes for a Press call at the London Eye.

But for those with good memories of promotional gimmicks, there were echoes of a similar stunt from 1998.

Then it was the Spice Girls who posed with scooters in a sponsorship deal with a firm called Aprilia.

Hundreds of 'Sonic Spice' scooters had been produced with an image of all five Spices on them to mark the Italian firm's sponsorship of the group's tour.

It all went sour when Geri Halliwell quit the group three weeks after the deal was signed. A court ordered the Spice Girls to pay £45,000 towards the cost of the scooters.

Such happenings are unlikely to stop companies trying to jump on the Hear'Say bandwagon.

John Simidian of Sledge, the company looking after their sponsorship deals, said: 'In the past two weeks, it's been a scrum at our door. The offers of deals have come in thick and fast.

'We have six car manufacturers, a scooter firm, four major national clothes retailers, two mobile phone networks and one phone manufacturer, cosmetics firms, media companies from newspapers to TV channels, and a whole load more.'

Sledge, which also handled the Spice Girls, says that Hear'Say will have only limited exposure.

'We're not blanket-bombing like the Spice Girls,' said Mr Simidian. 'We've moved on from that.

'The Spice Girls had deals with everything from Chupa Chup lollipops to Walkers Crisps and Pepsi --they were going out on TV ads in more than 90 countries.

'We're trying to manage it more sensibly over a period of time. If you get involved with every firm that wants to throw money at you, it dilutes the effect and is no good for the image of the band.'

Surprisingly perhaps the sponsorship deals will be the band's biggest moneyspinner, for they will be lucky if they manage to break even on the proceeds of one hit CD single.

Hear'Say's success will merely ensure that their record company Polydor is able to claw back some of the estimated £1.5million spent grooming them for stardom.

Music industry experts believe the group will earn around 7.5 per cent, about 30p, on each sale of the £3.99 CDs.

So they stand to make £33,000 each from the first week's sales. From this the record company will recoup the living expenses and promotional costs spent so far. That may well leave the group with nothing.